7 Ways to Earn $1,000 on the Side While You Pursue Your Dreams

We all have dreams that we want to achieve, but the world can be a tough place.

Instead of waiting and possibly going broke while you pursue your dream, you can get creative, develop new skills, and earn money in the process. In fact, there are several things you can do to earn a side income, and most of these activities will easily net you $1,000 in extra income monthly. Here are seven such activities:

1. Do Content Writing Jobs

According to data from Contently, freelancers make an average of about $10,000 to $20,000 annually. A good portion of freelancers make over $50,000 annually. There are many ways you can earn extra income as a freelancer, but one of the most profitable ways is by being a writer. You don’t have to learn to code and you don’t have to be tech-savvy. With above-average writing skills and good marketing, you can build a sustainable working income as a part-time content writer. This is not surprising when you consider the fact that you can make as much as $30-$50 per hour doing content writing jobs on sites like Upwork. If you get paid $30 per hour and you are able to dedicate two hours a day and five days a week to content writing jobs you’ll be able to easily net $1,000 in extra income in a month.

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2. Blog to Make Ends Meet

Many of us are familiar with blogging superstars like Arianna Huffington, Pete Cashmere, and Darren Rowse. It is easy to say to ourselves, “Oh, no! I can’t do this!” Do not despair. While your chances of earning a million dollars blogging are very slim, you can earn a realistic side income by blogging. You will achieve the most results by focusing on a small, specialized niche and then looking for a product or service to sell to these people. If done right, even with a small blog of a few thousand visitors it isn’t unusual to earn $500 to $1,000 on the side recommending products and offering your services to readers. Blogging isn’t as complicated as it used to be. Thanks to WordPress and guides like this one, you can have your blog ready in an hour or two.

3. Make Your Car Work For You

If you have a car, you’ve got a better chance at earning extra income than most people. Instead of doing nothing in your spare time or worrying about not having enough income, you can key into the sharing economy to generate some spare change for yourself. You can either rent out your car to others by the hour, or you can act as a temporary driver offering rides to others. This side job allows you to earn up to $35 or more per hour, and when you do this for two hours a day for a month, it quickly adds up to over $1,000 in extra income monthly. Services like Lyft make this possible and easy.

Since you don’t plan to consult full time, don’t expect to be rich from it. However, many people have started a full-time company from a part-time consulting business. A good example is Stefan Kartner, the founder of Realspace3d.com, a 3D printing company. He consulted with businesses on 3D printing while running his dream company.

If you have specialized skills the only way to earn isn’t by doing. Instead, you can also earn by directing people what to do. Many companies need help with various areas of their sites. It could be with things like content strategy, marketing strategy, sales strategy, design optimization, etc. The point is that they aren’t very good at doing these things themselves, and they aren’t willing to hire a full-time staff for these basic tasks either. By offering consulting services to these companies you help them save money on employee costs, and you also earn enough on the side while you pursue your dreams.

5. Be a Part of an Online Jury

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We’re seeing a lot of interesting cases and verdicts being delivered in the court these days, but how do attorneys know if a case will stand? Thanks to the internet, trial attorneys now hire people to review real cases before taking these cases to court. By having an idea of what regular people think about their case, they have a better idea of whether it will stand in the court or not.

A simple Google search will reveal sites that pay you to join an online jury, and many of these sites will pay you up to $60 per case you review. This quickly adds up.

6. Help Other People Do Their Assignments

If you’re bored and need extra cash, what is an easy way to have fun and make money? Help other people do their assignments. There are lots of students who aren’t willing to do their assignments, and who will happily outsource the task online. Here’s an article listing sites that pay people to do assignments for others. It has probably been a long time since you have had school assignments, so have fun challenging your brain and earning money at the same time.

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7. Create Your Own Online Course

If you have a special skill that others will love to learn and you’re comfortable in the front of a camera, you just got lucky! You can earn an extra $1,000 monthly by creating video courses for sites like Udemy. A major advantage to creating online courses for sites like Udemy is that you get to benefit from their audience. Udemy boasts over ten million students, and you get to benefit from such a massive audience. To make Udemy work, make sure your course is about something with high demand because it helps if there are not a lot of similar courses already on the site.

14 Powerful Leadership Traits That All Great Leaders Have

Being a leader of a company or organization is certainly a difficult and often frustrating position – but it can also be tremendously rewarding.

Whether you’re just starting out as a leader, or have been leading for a while, you’ll be sure to benefit from knowing the essential traits that all great leaders possess.

Effective and successful leaders transcend the title of ‘manager’ or ‘boss’. They’ve found a way to achieve the perfect combination of charisma, enthusiasm and self-assurance (with a healthy dose of luck and timing probably added to the mix).

It may seem like some people are gifted with leadership skills, but the truth is most leadership traits can be learned, adopted, and strengthened with time and practice.

As we delve into the list of effective leadership traits, you will learn the behaviors and attitudes of a good leader.

The 14 most important leadership traits

Please read through the list of leadership qualities carefully. Take note of which of the traits you excel at – and which ones you need to work at.

Traits for better self-development

1. Vision and mission

Having a clear picture of what needs to be achieved is a crucial quality of good leadership.

This vision is often communicated in a mission statement, such as this one from Starbucks:

How to develop vision? Spend time pinpointing what you need to achieve, and then plan the steps to get there. Here’s a complete guide on creating your own vision.

2. Self-motivated

It’s no coincidence that successful leaders have an abundance of self-motivation.

Without a decent level of self-motivation, you’ll struggle to become a strong and respected leader. However, if you don’t have a lot of self-motivation right now, don’t despair.

One of the secrets is to have definite goals to keep you motivated at all times. Some people also choose to reward themselves every time they achieve a goal, and this is certainly a good way to keep yourself enthused and motivated. Learn how to set an ambitious yet achievable goal here.

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3. Optimism and positivity

Positive energy is contagious. Great leaders are overflowing with this type of energy.

Not only does a positive mindset make leaders easy to work with, but it also gives them a constant source of inspiration and ideas.

4. Emotional stability

In leadership positions, frustration and stress are daily occurrences. This is why leaders need to have strong and stable emotions. They can’t allow themselves to be easily knocked off track.

If you’re prone to losing your emotional stability when stressed or frustrated, try some of these techniques: breath deeply and slowly for 30 seconds, go for a walk, drink some water (instead of tea or coffee), turn your focus onto something you can resolve. Here’re some effective ways to control your emotions.

5. Self-confidence

Watch a presentation by any CEO and you’ll see that even if they’re not natural presenters – they make up for this by having powerful self-confidence.

It’s not just CEOs who have self-confidence, any successful leader will have this trait in abundance. One reason for this, is that only a confident person can persuade others and gain their respect.

Worried that you have low self-confidence? Try faking it. Psychologists often recommend that if you ‘act’ at being confident, you’ll start to look, sound and feel like you ARE confident. And in time… you will be.

If you look for more ways to boost your self-confidence, this confidence coach has got you some nice advice:

6. Decisiveness

Leaders are frequently called upon to make decisions (some leaders may have to make dozens of decisions every day). In fact, you could say that making decisions is one of the key things a leader must do.

Spend some time observing highly-successful leaders and you’ll see that they are quick to make decisions. They also enjoy making decisions, rather than stressing out like many non-leaders do when they’re asked to decide on something.

Put yourself in the leadership bracket by developing your decision-making skills. Start with small decisions – and then work your way up to bigger and more difficult decisions. Once other people notice your decision-making prowess, they’ll automatically see you as leadership material.

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I know it’s really quite difficult to make the right decisions sometimes, but don’t worry, here’s a guide for you:

7. Passion and enthusiasm

Expressive. Active. Energetic. These are words best describe a passionate leader.

Great leaders are lively, driven and are possessed with zeal and purpose. It’s this passion that helps them achieve big results. If you want to emulate their success, then you need to develop passion and enthusiasm for the work at hand, and the end goals.

Take a look at this Passion Pyramid to find out how importance a leader’s passion is to the team:

One way to do this is to find what motivates you, and keep your focus firmly on that. For example, i f you’re motivated by helping others, then make sure your role and company are both suited to realizing this. If you’re motivated by money, then put your focus on achieving bonuses and pay rises.

8. Accountability and responsibility

Exceptional leaders know that at all times they’ll need to take responsibility for tasks and their results. This includes things likes individual and team performance, as well as being accountable for when things go wrong.

When negative things occur (and you can guarantee they will from time-to-time), a great leader will immediately step in and take responsibility. Initially, they’ll try to resolve the problem in as quick and smooth a way as possible. But if this is not feasible, they’ll be sure to say that the buck stops with them – and they take full responsibility for what has happened.

To develop your leadership skills, you must never shy away from responsibility or accountability. If you prefer to sweep mistakes under the carpet, then you’re demonstrating non-leadership traits. Try owning up to issues and finding solutions to them. By doing this, you’ll immediately gain people’s respect.

9. Focus

Distractions are everywhere. And it takes major focus to stay committed to tasks and goals. The best leaders understand this, and therefore, they’re always looking at ways to boost their team’s focus.

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One way leaders do this, is to keep their team intensely focused on the bigger picture. This might entail allocating specific time for tasks and eliminating any non-essential work.

If you’re easily knocked off track, you’ll need to spend some time boosting your focus. Try planning your day, week, month and year to help ensure that you don’t fall behind with achieving your goals. Check out the 7 strategies of staying super focus recommended by a productivity coach.

10. Ever-learning

Leaders know that to be successful they need to continually update their skills and knowledge. They deliberately learn all they can about their profession and industry, so they’ll able to make confident and assured decisions.

Why is ever learning so important? I’ll leave it to you to find out the reason here:

Imagine a CEO of a solar power company. His company may have amazing solar panels, but when it comes to discussing business with potential buyers, if the CEO or his sales team show a lack of understanding about the solar industry and future trends, etc., they’ll be unlikely to win any business.

It’s exactly the same for you. If you’re a team leader at an electronics store, you should make sure you fully understand all the products that you offer. But go beyond just that, and read about upcoming products and trends that might change what customers are interesting in buying in the future.

Traits for effective communication

11. Empathy

The best leaders understand the feeling of their team members, customers and associates. They know when to praise, and when to discuss problems (usually in private).

Without empathy, leaders will be seen as cold, harsh and lacking understanding. They’re also likely to be regarded as untrustworthy.

One way to ‘put yourself in someone else’s shoes’ is to have regular informal discussions with your colleagues. When you do this, you’ll quickly learn their fears and desires. And when you understand why they have these – you’ll be in a position to express empathy. You can also learn to be more sensitive to others’ needs by taking up these communication skills.

12. Persuasive and influential

Communications are at the heart of all transactions. Whether it’s pitching for a sale or resolving a customer complaint, how you communicate will determine the outcome.

Charismatic leaders such as Richard Branson (Virgin) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are confident and persuasive communicators. They know how to win over audiences and leave a lasting impressing in people’s minds.

There’re some common barriers that you’ll have to overcome in order to communicate effectively:

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How to learn effective communication? You could join the world-renowned U.S. nonprofit Toastmasters International. They’ve been training people in the art of public speaking since 1924, and members have included Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, and Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy.

If you don’t have time to join a club, then practice your communications skills at home. You can do this in front of a mirror, or even better, video yourself presenting, and then ask some friends and family members for feedback. You’ll be amazed at what they pick up on.

Traits for ensuring an engaging team

13. Team building

If you put a bunch of random people together, you may have a loose definition of a team. In reality, a real team has purpose, drive – and a leader lighting the way.

If you’ve worked in different teams and with different managers, you’ll no doubt have come to this conclusion:

Managers who treat their team members like children are unpopular with the team. Conversely, managers who treat their team members like adults, are respected and well-liked by the team.

The days of disciplinarian managers are passed. Nowadays, successful team leaders know how to inspire and motivate their team, while keeping a harmonious atmosphere between all team members.

14. Fostering creativity

Solutions to problems are rarely black and white. Often it takes a leader who can ‘think outside the box’ to come up with answers. In other words, a leader must be creative, and also help to foster creativity and innovation throughout their team.

Creativity is not only associated with pursuits such as arts, literature and music, running a team can be just as creative. There will be times every day when you need to come up with ideas and give guidelines for your team to come up with theirs to solve problems.

Leadership is a journey of continuous learning

Leadership is an amazing experience that will take you on roads you’ve never traveled before.

Begin now to build your skills and experience, pick out the traits that you currently lack – and then work on developing those.

It will take tons of practice and time before becoming an effective leader but eventually you will join the ranks of great leaders.